


New Family Memories

by afteriwake



Series: Summer Under The Stars - May / June / July / August 2017 [1]
Category: Cowboy Bebop, DCU (Comics), Doctor Who, Firefly, Green Lantern (Comics), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Akhaten, Alien Character(s), Appalled Kirk, Bar Room Brawl, Bars and Pubs, Best Friends, Chekov Is Bouncy, Conversations, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Discovering The TARDIS, Dogs, Dogs Aboard The Enterprise, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Drinking Songs, Drunkenness, Embarrssing Photographs, Episode: s01e17 Mushroom Samba, Episode: s07e08 The Rings of Akhaten, Excessive Drinking, Friendship, Gedi Prime, Gen, Gift Giving, Golf, Grand Gesture, Happy Kirk, Humor, Hungover, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Fanart, Joanna Gets To See Her Daddy, Kirk Can't Resist A Mystery, Kirk Has Puppy Dog Eyes, Kirk's Past, Male Friendship, McCoy Appreciates Kirk, Memories, Mentioned Ben Sulu/Hikaru Sulu, Mentioned Keenser, Mentioned Nyota Uhura, Mentioned Spock/Nyota Uhura - Freeform, Multiple Crossovers, Mushrooms, POV Leonard McCoy, Photographs, Playing With Ein, Post-Episode: s01e26 The Real Folk Blues (Part 2), Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness, Presents, Returning Home, Scotty Has Secrets, Secret Brewery, Shore Leave, Silly Edward, Singing, Stoned Chekov, Team as Family, Time Travelling Green Lanterns, Uncle Kirk, Universe Travelling Green Lanterns, What The Captain Doesn't Know, blackout drunk, mentioned Hikaru Sulu, mentioned Spock, photo album
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:05:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5308742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One night before the Enterprise is set to go on another mission into deep space, McCoy realizes that Kirk never had a really decent childhood. So when he sees Kirk beginning to get a bit...overexcited...when they go on shore leave, he decides to be a little less of his grumpy self and instead help preserve some of these memories for his friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GreenSkyOverMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenSkyOverMe/gifts).



> So among the Star Trek prompts that have caught my fancy were this one, inspired by [fanart](http://mutecornett.tumblr.com/post/59623826562/xyai-and-i-were-talking-about-how-on-shore-leave) by **mutecornett** on Tumblr that had Kirk posing for a picture for McCoy between Spock and Uhura while they were all covered with jam. The version of the post that I had run across, though, had had tags added to it by **trektags** (which can be found [here](http://trektags.tumblr.com/post/62197518947/mutecornett-xyai-and-i-were-talking-about-how)) about McCoy and how Kirk looked at the pictures he had with his family and how maybe Kirk didn’t have pictures like that of his own, and that’s what inspired this story for **GreenSkyOverMe**.

Sometimes he wondered about his friend.

Jim was charming. He had a grin at the ready, most of the time, and he was ready with a quip or a joke, some sarcastic comment if needed. He could put anyone at ease. He had what seemed like a million friends, there were probably twice as many women as that prancing in and out of his bed, and chances were he could probably get peace between the Klingons and the Federation if he tried hard enough. 

And yet there were times when he’d get in a mood, when his mind would just wander and he’d be pensive and you’d have to wonder just what the hell had happened to Jim when he was young to get him to be the way he was. McCoy had heard Jim ramble on and on about loads of things: sports, classic 80s and 90s era movies and music, the differences between whiskeys…but he never heard him talk about his family or his childhood. Everyone knew his father had captained the Kelvin and saved all those people the day Jim was born, but other than that? Jim was pretty mum on the topic. Not even plying him with whiskey could get him to talk about it.

McCoy would catch him in his apartment in San Francisco or his room in the Enterprise, looking at his photos. He’d had a pretty idyllic childhood, all things considered. His parents had made time for family vacations, taking the brood to the shore in the summer or sometimes up into the mountains to go on camping trips. He’d grumbled all throughout them, and he knew in the pictures littered throughout the places he called home he looked like the sullen grump he was as an adult, just younger, but they’d been good memories. And there were pictures of him with his daughter, the only good thing to come out of his marriage. Not that he saw or talked to her much now; his harpy of a wife made sure of it. But the pictures were proof that, for a while, he’d had a good life.

He never saw pictures like that in Jim’s living quarters. There weren’t any personal pictures, come to think of it. Art was up on the wall; Jim had decent taste in art, a good eye for that. That gave people something nice to look at. But stuff with a personal touch? Aside from knick-knacks, tacky souvenirs from different places he’d been, there wasn’t much that would really make the place his own.

McCoy wondered why.

He’d known Jim for a while now. Pretty long while, at that. Long enough to have gone through two Admirals in charge of Starfleet. Long enough to have finished their first mission in deep space. Long enough to have dealt with Nero and Khan and come out on the better end of both encounters. They were getting ready to go back into space at the end of the week, on another mission, another trip into deep space, though not for five years again. He was dreading it, in a way, but at the same time he realized that this was his life now and it wasn’t an altogether bad one.

And right now he was watching Jim sip a Budweiser Classic from the bottle, staring at the picture he always seemed to gravitate to, of McCoy with his mother and younger brother on a boat holding up a fishing pole and a huge fish that they’d caught. “So how old were you when you caught that fish?” he asked.

“Six,” McCoy said, having already told Jim the story at least ten times over the last eight years. “Ricky was four. We were on a boat in the Beaufort River in Beaufort, South Carolina.”

“And your brother made you toss it back?” Kirk asked, turning away from the photo to face him, grin on his face.

McCoy nodded, trying not to roll his eyes. “When he found out my mom wanted to cook it for dinner yeah, he made us throw it back in.” McCoy took a sip of his own drink. “Don’t you have any photos of your own to look at? Embarrassing stories of your own to tell?”

The grin dropped off Kirk’s face. “No, not really,” he said quietly.

“What kind of childhood did you have?” McCoy asked.

“One I don’t want to talk about,” Kirk said before taking a long sip of his beer. He used the bottle to point to the photo. “You had a great childhood, turned you into a grouch, so it’s not like it’s a big deal.”

“But you didn’t go on vacations or things like that?” McCoy asked.

Kirk stared at him. “You’re not going to let this drop, are you?” he asked.

McCoy nodded. “Just a couple of questions. Call me curious.”

“Fine, Curious,” Kirk said.

McCoy shook his head. “Smartass.”

Kirk gave him a slight smirk before taking another drink. “My mom…she wasn’t on earth much,” he said. “Didn’t want to be around me. It was too hard, I guess. She left me and my brother with our uncle. He was a bastard. After a while my brother couldn’t take it and he left. The day he left, I stopped being the good kid who did what he was told and I became the James Tiberius Kirk you know today.” He moved over to another one of McCoy’s photographs. “We didn’t really act like much of a family, so there weren’t family vacations. We don’t do family get togethers. I haven’t talked to my uncle since I moved out, I have no clue where my brother is and my mom…” He shrugged and then took another drink. “We’re working on it.”

McCoy nodded. That was the most he’d ever gotten out of Jim about his family in the eight years he’d known him. Hell, Jim had known more about him and _his_ family than he had ever known about Jim’s, and then Jim just let all of that out. To be honest, he hadn’t even expected to get that much. He looked over at Jim and watched him pick up the photo, this one of McCoy and his daughter. He doubted he’d get anything else out of Jim on the topic tonight but…at least he understood. That was something.


	2. Chapter 2

McCoy had the seed of a plan hatching in his head after his conversation with Jim. He was going to start taking pictures. Not a whole lot, just of some of the important moments that they spent together. And not just him and Jim...their whole extended family of the crew. Because really, by now that was what they were. Jim had been asked if there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his family and they all knew that that meant him and Spock and Uhura and Scotty and Chekov and Sulu. They were Jim’s family now, the one he gave a damn about who gave a damn back.

He started keeping the camera on him any time they went off ship, just in case. He never knew when an opportunity would pop up for a picture. They’d gone far out into space this time, into some area that seemed rather backwater to him, kind of old west in a way, and he and Jim were at a bar having a drink. They weren’t in Federation space but they’d managed to barter for two beers, and they weren’t half bad beers. “Kind of has an old west vibe, doesn’t it?” Jim asked him, looking around the bar.

“In a way, yeah,” McCoy replied. “Modernized, though. Though not as modern as we are.”

“Yeah. Wonder what the name of this planet is?” he asked, taking a sip of his beer.

“We’re just here to observe, remember? We’re not here to get involved.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know,” he said. He set his beer down. “Strange place. Lots of people speaking Chinese here.”

“Nyota would have a field day,” McCoy said with a grin. “We should have brought her with us. She probably could have bartered us two beers each. Or three.”

“Like we need that many,” Kirk said with a grin. “This is supposed to be a reconnaissance mission.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s thirsty work,” McCoy said with a grin of his own.

Whatever Kirk was going to say in response was lost when the sounds of angry Chinese and English being shouted in the corner near a pool table could be heard. Both of them craned their neck to see what the commotion was.

“...don’t need your kind around here,” a man was saying to another man wearing a long brown coat over a red shirt and brown pants.

“ _My_ kind?” the man said incredulously. “You hear that? Talking about my kind.”

“I heard you, Captain,” the woman who was with him said. She was a tall black woman with a fitted leather vest and leather pants, and she had a stern look on her face. “Just what did you mean by that.”

“You know damn well what I meant, _jone yee_ ,” the man said, raising himself to his full height, and then shrinking back when the woman took a step forward. “No one needs any trouble.”

“Yeah, well, they’re gonna get trouble,” another man said, one with a tight T-shirt and denim pants, who had dark hair and a beard. “’Cause I’m kinda in the mood for trouble.” And with that, he socked the man across the face, and the man staggered back.

“ _Go shi_ ,” the man in the brown coat said as within seconds the bar erupted in a full on riot. He was swinging punches and within seconds was edging closer and closer to Kirk and McCoy.

McCoy was trying to get out the door but he caught the gleam in Kirk’s eye and groaned. “Come on, man! We’re not supposed to interfere.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in a bar fight,” Kirk said. “And the guy in the brown coat needs our help.”

McCoy shook his head. “You idiot. You do what you want and I’ll patch you up later,” he said, heading towards the door, careful not to get bashed in the head. He waited outside, sipping his beer and ignoring the pandemonium going on inside and the occasional body flying out the window until things quieted down. When it seemed quiet enough, he stuck his head back in and saw the three people who had instigated the fight and Kirk, standing bruised and battered but victorious.

“Bones!” Kirk said. “Come and join us for a celebratory drink.”

“There any booze left in the place?” McCoy asked, stepping around groaning bodies.

“Yeah, there’s a couple bottles of whiskey left,” the man in the T-shirt said.

McCoy looked around and then shrugged. “I’ll take a shot. And then I’ll take a look at your wounds.”

The man in the brown coat shook his head. “Our doc can patch us up just fine. But thanks for offering.” He held out his hand to Kirk. “You got a mighty fine left hook, you know that? Mighty fine.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Kirk said with a grin. “What’s your name?”

“Captain will do,” he said. “What’s yours?”

“I’ll go by Captain as well,” he replied. The two men shook hands as McCoy took out the camera and snapped a picture. When he got it developed later he saw that the man in the T-shirt and the woman were in the background, raising shots of whiskey, and he thought that seemed rather appropriate for the situation they’d just been in. He gave it to Kirk and wasn’t surprised to see it on his desk on the Enterprise a few days later in a frame, and that put a smile on his face.


	3. Chapter 3

“The last planet you took us to for shore leave was like a desert, Cap’n,” Scotty said, glaring at his friend and Captain as Kirk sat in the pilot’s seat in the shuttle. “You told us there would be beachside activities and there wasn’t a drop of water in sight for miles. And when we found it, it was only enough to fill a shot glass!”

McCoy watched as Jim began flipping switches on the shuttle. Truth be told, as much as the heat and sand had been annoying as hell, there had been some amusing moments too and he’d made sure to get them on film. He’s switched to an old-fashioned camera when Chekov had noticed what he was doing. The kid had an interest in photography, he’d found, and had quite the collection of antique cameras that surprisingly still worked. Not only that, he’d jerry-rigged them all to interface with the holocubes to store the photos he took. He hated to admit it, but the kid was kind of a genius. After a moment Jim turned and gave Scotty a grin. “Ever hear of a Darmok, Scotty?”

Scotty nodded. “Best damn frozen drink in the federation.”

“Prepare to get shitfaced off of them, because we’re heading to Ranza V,” Jim said before turning around and beginning to pilot them out of the shuttle bay.

“And I suppose I’ve been brought along to be the designated shuttle driver,” McCoy said in a wry tone.

“Course not, Bones. You think I’d leave you out of the fun?” Jim said, flashing him a quick grin. “We just have one teensy little diplomatic situation to take care of, then it’s all the Darmoks we can drink until we black out.”

“I knew this was too good to be true,” Bones murmured. “Just what is this diplomatic matter we have to take care of?”

“Brokering a peace treaty between two warring factions on the opposite side of the planet from the main Federation stronghold,” Jim said. “Both are allies of the Federation but they hate each other and it’s coming to blows and the Federation wants to make sure they don’t get any bright ideas of bringing their blow-up anywhere near civilians.”

Scotty leaned forward. “Just how big are these factions?” he asked.

Jim was quiet. “About the population of New New York? And San Francisco?” he said evasively.

“Good God, man,” Bones said, tipping his head back into his seat. “And they’re all warriors potentially against a Federation stronghold that’s _how_ large?”

Jim sank in his seat a little. “Maybe the size of Long Island?”

“Wonderful,” Bones grumbled.

“You know what this calls for?” Scotty said.

“What?” Jim and Bones chorused, Jim hopefully and Bones sourly.

“Liquor. Potent stuff. Loads and loads of it. The stuff Keenser brews in Engineering that you aren’t supposed to know about. Take us back and I’ll go get the vats.”

Jim turned to Scotty and raised an eyebrow. “Vats? Plural?”

“You think anyone in their right mind likes the weak pansy brew we have on board? I make a mint in trades for the stuff. Keenser’s practically the number man on board because it’s a special Roylan brew that he’s the only one in all of Starfleet that knows how to make, and it’ll knock the socks off even the heaviest of drinkers.”

“Number one, how many wasted crew members do I have at any given time, and number two, when do I get to try it?” Jim asked, giving him a stern look.

“It’s best if you don’t know the answer to number one, and if you park the shuttle sooner rather than later, today, probably,” Scotty said. Jim shook his head and turned to re-dock the shuttle. Once it was back in its spot, Scotty got out of his seat. “Be right back.”

“You know, the things I learn that go on in my ship frighten me,” Jim said, watching Scotty leave before turning to Bones.

“You and me both,” Bones agreed. He looked at Jim in return. “You think this plan will actually work? Get them so drunk they decide not to fight?”

Jim considered it for a minute and then shrugged. “Maybe we should tell Scotty to bring Keenser in case we need to trade a secret Roylan brew recipe for peace on Ranza V,” he said, undoing his harness. “He stood up. “Gimmie a sec.”

And so it was that among the many pictures he had from that day, because both warring factions were so enamored with his camera, included one of a never before made version of the Darmok made with Roylan booze, and an absolutely sappily drunk James T. Kirk with his arm slung around Scotty’s shoulders, kissing Keenser on the top of the head while holding the drink up as celebratory fireworks went off in the background. He had the feeling he might put this on Keenser’s Valentine’s Day card this year, just for the hell of it, and sign it with Jim’s name.

That would be fun.


	4. Chapter 4

“No diplomatic missions, Captain?” Chekov asked as he, Uhura, Spock, Bones and Jim exited the shuttle and entered what looked to be a bazaar of some sort. Bones had to admit, he’d never seen so many different species of aliens gathered in one place before that wasn’t a Federation post of some sort. It was kind of strange to see, but that was probably why Jim had told them casual clothing would be best.

“Nope. This is literally a shop till you drop day, to use an old Earth phrase,” Jim said. “Now, as I understand it, no one here uses any real form of currency. They barter, and they all barter different things, and not all those things are physical, so...keep that in mind. Okay? Don’t go pissing off any locals. We don’t need that kind of trouble.”

“That’s something you should remember,” Bones said with a wry grin.

“Ha. Ha ha ha,” Kirk said, giving Bones a look and shaking his head. He turned and watched as Spock and Uhura went off together, holding hands, and then tilted his head. “Think anyone will give them grief?”

“About what?” Bones said, looking away from the couple to Chekov, who was using his own camera to take pictures of various things that interested him.

“Human and a Vulcan. Together. I mean, you know, _together_ together,” he said.

“The universe is a vast and wide place,” Bones said with a shrug. “For all we know, they may have no idea what a Vulcan is here.” Then he paused. “You know, I don’t even know where ‘here’ is, actually.”

“Akhaten,” he said. “It’s the Festival of Offerings.” He looked around and then reached over for Chekov’s arm. “Are you coming with us or spending all day looking through a lens?”

“There are so many interesting things,” Chekov said, his voice full of wonder.

“And just think, kid. There’s a whole lot more _that_ way,” Bones said, using his hand to turn Chekov’s head towards the main part of the bazaar. Chekov’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and he was off, with Jim and Bones moving faster to keep up. “I swear, he makes me feel old.”

“You are old,” Jim said with a chuckle.

“Watch who you’re calling old or I may jab you with a needle full of Andorian shingles while you sleep, _Captain,_ ” Bones said sourly, putting a hand on the camera around his neck to keep it from swinging wildly.

“I thought when I became Captain of the _Enterprise_ I decided you couldn’t jab me with needles full of space germs anymore,” Jim said.

“I’m the chief medical officer and I’m bigger than you. Try and stop me,” Bones said, though he was grinning just a little as he said it. 

“I outrank you.”

“Does it matter?”

This time Jim let out more of a laugh. “Not when you can kill me in my sleep.”

“See? I knew you’d listen to reason.” It was then they noticed that Chekov had stopped, staring at something with wide eyes. It took Bones a minute to realize what he was looking at it, and then he, too, started to stare. “What in God’s green earth is a British police box doing on an alien planet?”

“I was thinking that same thing,” Chekov said, hesitantly reaching forward to touch it. When no alarms went off and nothing went haywire, he reached over to push the door open. “Nothing.”

“It says pull,” Jim said, moving over to pull the doors. There was no give for him, either. “Locked.”

“It is an interesting mystery,” Chekov said, moving away from the front and walking around it as best he could. “A bit of Earth so far away? I would like to know more.”

“I would too,” Kirk said. “But someone could have traded it, you know. It could just be a relic meant to sit here. Doesn’t really _have_ to have any meaning.”

Bones raised an eyebrow. “James Tiberius Kirk doesn’t want to explore a mystery? He doesn’t want to _dig_ beneath the surface?”

Kirk tilted his head back and forth a bit, bobbing his shoulders, too, before a wide grin formed on his face. “Okay, yeah. Take a picture to show people and we’ll ask around while we do our shopping.”

“I can do that!” Chekov said, nearly bouncing back to the front and then adjusting his stance, bringing his camera up and snapping a picture. He pulled his camera back and then looked at the display. “Would have been much better if I had brought a Polaroid. Then we would have a physical picture.”

“Digital will do,” Jim said. Then he looked back at the police box. “You’re big on getting pictures, Bones, of all these trips we take. One of me and Chekov in front of the box, just for the hell of it.”

“Yes, please,” Chekov said, giving him that endearing grin.

Bones shook his head and motioned for the two of them to stand in front of the box. Kirk stood on one side, holding his hands up above and down below the white sign on the left-hand side. Chekov stood on the other side, gazing adoringly at the “Police Box” sign at the top. Bones snapped the picture and then shook his head.

If he’d known all the trouble the two occupants of that police box were going to _cause_ that day, he might not have been so amused, but at least the picture had turned out good.


	5. Chapter 5

“I didn’t think you were an avid golfer,” Bones said to Kirk as he watched him take a swing at the small ball on the tee on their course, the illustrious back nine on Gedi Prime. How he had ever convinced Kirk that they could all do with a vacation _here_ of all places, he’d never know, and how Kirk had managed to arrange for so many family members to be here at the same time…

Say what you would about James Tiberius Kirk, the man did have a heart.

As much as he would love to spend every second with his daughter away from the influence of the flaming harpy when Kirk suggested a round of golf with Scotty, Sulu and Ben, he’d acquiesced. It helped that Joanna had decided she was going to be the caddy, and Kirk had made it a point to go get dressed in the gaudiest golfer’s outfit that Joanna had picked out for him with the widest grin on his face and not a word of complaint. He was sure his daughter had picked the clashing mint green and mustard yellow on purpose, but Kirk wore it proudly.

“Well, I can’t bowl for sh—napps,” he said, remembering there was a minor present at the last minute. “So I make use of the holodeck to work on my golfing. I used to do a ton of different sports in Iowa: baseball, basketball, even football for a bit. But my dad had this set of golf clubs so I used to go down to one of the fields and hit golf balls, try and knock tin cans off fence posts.” He shrugged. “Made me real good at it, I guess.”

“Is there a lot to do in Iowa?” Joanna asked, piping up from the golf cart.

Kirk frowned a little, leaning on his golf club. “Depends on if you’re a naughty person or not.” 

“Your Uncle Jim, by the way, was very much _not_ a naughty person and he won’t be sharing stories of what a naughty person would do,” Bones said, giving Kirk a glare, which got Kirk to chuckle.

“You know one thing I did learn to do that was fun?” Kirk said. “I learned to ride horses.”

“Really?” Joanna said, her eyes wide. She wasn’t so young that the idea of riding horses would have impressed her, Bones had thought, but apparently, he was wrong. Her attention was fully on Kirk and whatever story he was about to tell. Bones just hoped it was kid friendly or he might have to show his daughter how to punch a guy’s lights out at this tender age.

Kirk nodded. “We didn’t have horses because my uncle didn’t want to deal with the hassle. Horses are cool, but they’re a lot of work. But the farm nearby, _they_ had horses. And we used to swap supplies with them sometimes. Anyway, the couple that ran the farm didn’t have kids, and they didn’t always have a farmhand, so when my brother was still living at home I’d go over and help them, and when all the work was done the husband and I would go out and check the fields on the horses. Their farm was bigger than ours, so it was easier. It’s a nice, calming thing to do.” Then his grin widened. “Maybe we can get some horses out for a little bit and ride them on the beach while we’re here.”

“Oh, can we?” Joanna asked, turning to Bones. “Please, Daddy? Please please please?”

“You’re going to fall off the horse and break an arm and your mother will decapitate me,” he said.

“She can ride with me,” Kirk said. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t fall off. That’s how I learned.” He moved over to Joanna and knelt down next to her, matching his wide-eyed expression to hers. “Please let your daughter go horseback riding, Bones? Pretty pretty please?”

Bones scowled and shook his head, pressing his knuckles to his forehead. “I hate you both,” he murmured.

“No you don’t,” Kirk said. “You love us. Admit it.”

“I love _her_. I tolerate you,” he replied.

Kirk moved so he was in front of Joanna and she took the unspoken hint to climb onto his back for a piggyback ride. “We get to go horseback riding,” Kirk said in a singsongy voice. “We get to go horseback riding.”

Even though he’d been defeated Joanna’s cheerful laughter and her joining in in the song brought him out of the foul mood pretty quickly, and he went to go get the camera, snapping a picture of Kirk carrying his daughter around on his back while Joanna had an arm triumphantly up in the air. When the vacation time was over and Joanna went back to her mom, that picture was one of many from that trip that took up permanent residence on his desk and was definitely one he looked at often.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn’t always Bones behind the camera. Most of the time it was, mostly because the camera was an antique and he’d be damned if he’d trust it to anyone else, but every once in a while there’d be an occasion where there’d be a reason for him to end up in the picture too. Not often, but the time he and Kirk ended up in the bar in the Alpha Quadrant had been a memorable time. There had been a guy there with a bit of a temper and the reddest red hair he’d ever seen, and with him was a big hulking alien who had the demeanor of a drill sergeant and looked like some sort of space hog. He’d thought they’d be trouble at first but somehow the topic of old Earth motorcycles got brought up and Kirk was over to them like a lodestone to a magnet.

Turned out the two of them were time and universe displaced galactic cops of some sort, sent out to protect a certain quadrant of the galaxy, and they were trying to figure out how to get back to their time and their universe. They’d thought they were stuck among people who had no idea of anything having to do with Earth and it had been a damn lucky day to stumble onto the Enterprise crew.

Of course, there had to be some fighting before everything ended well; the red-headed galactic cop with the temper had to start a bar brawl, but it turned out the guy had been the one to send them to their universe and all, and once he was taken down and no one was in danger and their magic rings had the bad guy locked up in a green light show prison they could get down to some _real_ celebrating. Even he decided to join in instead of letting Kirk have all the fun for once and boy, were those two cops boisterous drinkers.

He didn’t remember much, and neither did Kirk or any of the crew who’d gone into the bar with them once the Romulan ale started flowing, but they woke up in a sleepy heap later with the bar tab paid and the tables and chairs all fixed up and the bartender saying he was all out of liquor and he’d never seen one group of people put away that much but boy, he’d never been paid so handsomely before, either.

Then they found out they’d been out cold for an entire twenty-four hours.

They made their way back to the Enterprise, some of them experiencing the worst hangover they’d ever had, and he didn’t even think the check the camera he’d taken with him till almost a week later. What he saw on it were photos of the rarest sight in the universe, according to damn near everyone on the ship: him smiling. The space hog cop must have taken the photos, and he took damn good ones, too. But the one he slipped into Kirk’s album had Bones with an arm slung around the red-headed cop’s shoulders while he did the same, the two of them singing a boisterous drinking song, while Kirk stood between them, a wide grin on his face.

Even Bones could give in every once in a while and offer up photographic proof he was human, he supposed.


	7. Chapter 7

Bones couldn’t help but feel at least a _little_ bit sorry for Spock and Uhura. It was pretty obvious to everyone they wanted time alone. Everyone, that was, except Kirk. Kirk was hell bent on dragging the two of them along with everyone else along this planet they’d landed on that seemed to be having some kind of culinary festival in the capital city of the area they’d landed on. Chekov, Sulu and Scotty had managed to sneak away, much to Kirk’s consternation, but that had made his grip on the lovebirds all that much tighter.

“Jim, I think the two of them want to be alone,” Bones said, leaning in toward Kirk.

Kirk shook his head. “Nah. I mean, this is...” He looked around. “This is the Intergalactic Jam Festival! You don’t go off and enjoy this on your own! You enjoy it with _friends_.”

“Jim, your friends are about to murder you, and I can’t bring you back from the dead again. There aren’t any more Tribble specimens left on the ship.” 

Kirk glared at Bones for a moment, and then sighed, looking at Uhura and Spock. Bones cast a glance at them too, taking in what Kirk finally saw: they were bored, they were tired, and they wanted alone time. “Maybe I can convince them to do one more thing before they go off on their own?” Kirk said.

“Maybe, if it’s quick,” Bones said. Then he saw where Kirk’s eyes darted too and he groaned. “Jim, _no._ ”

“Bones, _yes_ ,” he said, putting an arm around Bones' shoulder and then going over to Spock and Uhura. Bones knew this was a mistake, he knew it deep, deep down, but he also knew Nyota and Spock would agree to practically _anything_ to escape. 

Even if it meant being covered in jam in a jam pie slinging contest.

Kirk’s deadly aim actually kept the others from being _too_ badly covered, though he didn’t fare so well himself, and they walked away as a team with the top prize of a decent amount of the region’s currency and rooms at a nice inn for the night. Kirk gave one of the rooms to Spock and Uhura as well as half the money to go enjoy themselves for “humoring him” and Bones knew he had to get a picture. He didn’t have the old fashioned camera this time just a tricorder. 

He could tell Uhura and Spock were just itching to go, With Uhura telling Spock to humor him and it would be over soon and Spock telling the captain not to touch him because he was sticky, but Kirk was just happy, standing in between them, covered from head to waist in jam with a goofy grin on his face. Once the picture was taken the others left and Kirk walked up to Bones. “We should probably get clean clothes,” Kirk said, pointing to the smudge of raspberry jam on his shoulder.

Bones looked to his side and nodded. “Sounds good.”

“What do you do with all these pictures, anyway?” Kirk asked as they walked around, looking for someone who was selling clothing amongst the non-food wares being sold.

“Put them in an album. When we get back home, I’ll give it to you,” Bones said.

Kirk grinned, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Can’t wait.”


	8. Chapter 8

“I told him not to eat the mushrooms,” McCoy said, shaking his head at Chekov as Sulu tried to rein him in. “I mean, even the kid was trying to tell him not to--” He stopped as he realized his audience had left him. Though what did he expect? Said audience had been side-eyeing the kid’s dog with a look of longing ever since they bumped into him...her...in the middle of this godforsaken desert planet. It was a cute dog, he guessed, though corgis weren’t really his thing. Give him a Labrador any day of the week and he’d be happy.

“Don’t you have family we can take you to?” Kirk was asking the kid when Bones got closer to the two of them. Uhura and Scotty had the dog between them, lying on it’s back with its tongue lolled out as they took turns scratching it’s fat little belly.

“They’ll be back,” the kid said in a singsong voice. “They’ll be back for us. Come back and go hunt more bounties!”

Kirk looked up at Bones and Bones shrugged before, moving his finger to his ear and circling it. Kirk glared and pointed to the kid but Bones rolled his eyes. There was one kid in the whole universe he got along with who wasn’t his Joanna and that was Demora. Any other kid could go jump off a cliff. Those two girls were the only two he’d tolerate.

“Jim...” he said, crossing his arms.

“Can I just get a minute?” he asked, getting up and dusting his pants off before going over to the dog. The plaintive look on his face made him look like a little kid and that managed to elicit a small grin from him, which got an even wider one in response from his friend. He plopped his ass down in between Uhura and Scotty and took over the scratching of the belly.

Bones grabbed his camera and got what ended up being one of his favorite pictures of all time. Kirk, Uhura and Scotty were in the foreground, playing with the dog, while the kid and Sulu were in the back, chasing Chekov around as he attempted to strip himself naked. He had the feeling that picture should probably never see the light of day among the crew, but be held close to the vest for potential blackmail, should he ever want some of Chekov’s good whiskey.

It also should be noted that not too long after they embarked back into space, a ship hailed them, a beat up old rig captained by a guy whose very demeanor screamed “ex-cop,” who said he had a gift for a Mr. Yellow Shirt. They’d asked what happened to the kid but the captain of the other ship just shook his head and said he’d see them around, maybe. And it wasn’t that much later that the corgi was a regular companion on the Enterprise, quite happy to lay about in Kirk’s quarters, occasionally sneaking out to the bridge only to fall asleep at Kirk’s feet to the smiles and the murmured “Good boy, Ein” of his new owner. 

There seemed to be a lot of pictures of that blasted corgi in McCoy’s album after that, he noticed, but he didn’t seem to mind.


	9. Chapter 9

It took a while, but eventually, they finally returned home to San Francisco. Another journey over, another set of adventures done. At least this one hadn’t been as dangerous as some of the others, thank God. He might even volunteer to go on another voyage with this ragtag bunch of hooligans.

Maybe.

Birthdays weren’t a big deal for most of the crew but they were for their captain nowadays. Bones made sure of it. And this year was going to be a special one. In all the other trips, there had never really been a record of their adventures except the captain’s log, and there were just some things that Kirk didn’t need to bring up. This time, there was photographic evidence of some of the people they’d met, the things they’d seen and done. And he could have a record of that, memories of the “vacation” he took into space, even if it really wasn’t a vacation. But he was with his family, so that was the important part.

All the other gifts had been given when Bones pulled out the album. He’d whittled through all the pictures to the hundred and fifty best and put them all into one album, and if Kirk wanted the rest for putting them in frames around his apartment or on the Enterprise he had them for him. He handed the heavy gift to his friend. “Mostly from me, but kind of from all of us,” Bones said.

Kirk grinned and tore off the paper, grinning even more widely when he saw the black leather that was embossed with the gold words “Photo Album.” “From the last voyage?” he asked, opening it and flipping through it.

“Yeah,” Bones said. “I have a ton that didn’t go in if you want more.”

The others crowded around and started pointing and talking, and Bones _almost_ missed hearing Kirk say “I’d love them” over the others, but he caught it and grinned. Maybe there’d be some changes to Kirk’s apartment and living quarters soon.

That’d probably be a real good thing, he reckoned.


End file.
